A series of attacks that rocked Iraq on Sunday left at least 51 dead and over 250 injured across the country, confirmed the Iraqi authorities. The bloodiest attack occurred in the morning in a market near the shrine of Imam Ali Shia al-Sharkhi in southern Iraq. Two suicide car bombing attacks killed 14 people and wounded 60 others, according to a medical source and a security services official.

In Kirkuk, 250 miles north of the capital, another car bomb exploded near a recruiting center for security guards employed by an oil company. Eight people were killed.

An attack in Nassiriya took place in front of the building housing the Consulate of France, killing one police officer. Four others were injured. Premises were damaged by the explosion, but the honorary consul, an Iraqi national, was not inside the building at the time of the attack, said a French diplomat. Nassiriya, 300 km southeast of the capital, Baghdad, is in a relatively stable region.

In another part of the city, two people were killed by the explosion of a car bomb.

Other attacks in Kirkuk, Samarra, Basra and Touz Khourmato also resulted in the death of Irais.